


i put a spell on you

by rumpledvelvet



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A very nosy ghost., Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And also a ghost., Established Relationship, Ghosts, M/M, Magic, Pidge | Katie Holt is a Good Friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-31 03:01:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13965939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rumpledvelvet/pseuds/rumpledvelvet
Summary: Keith has some trouble figuring out just what to get Shiro for his birthday.





	i put a spell on you

**Author's Note:**

> why is the above summary a trope of mine? who am i?? 
> 
> this is a very, very late gift to CaihongHoshi on tumblr for the Shiro Birthday Exchange! i hope you like it!

“So,” Pidge’s voice, while the lightest thing Keith has had the displeasure of hearing, is still grating on the young witch’s nerves. “You have eight days until Shiro’s birthday–”

 

Keith cuts them off with a curt  _ yes _ while he holds up a heart shaped bottle up to the light. Lavender barely covers the bottom of it, he needs more. Pidge continues on like he hasn’t said a word. 

 

“You have eight days until Shiro’s birthday and you haven’t gotten him anything–” Pidge cuts themself off as Keith holds up a fresh stick of  _ palo santo _ . Pidge does not want to be exorcised before noon on this day, so they choose their next words very carefully. “But you have an idea? Hopefully?” The  _ palo santo  _ goes back down to its place beside Keith’s thigh and the spirit lets out a short sigh of relief. Good. Okay. 

 

Keith doesn’t actually have any idea of what to get his neighbor-turned-boyfriend for his birthday. It’s the first real event they’re celebrating together – they both adamantly refused to acknowledge Valentine’s Day – and Keith is..at a lost. Most presents seem too personal, or not personal enough, and it’s not like Keith could just  _ ask _ Shiro what he wanted for his birthday. That would be too easy. 

 

Pidge levels their human friend with a look as they nudged a small bundle of lavender closer to Keith by sucking some of his phone battery. They were helping. “You can absolutely just ask him what he wants for his birthday the same way that you ask him how he wants to be fucked.” 

  
Keith accidentally pours too much lavender into the jar as he’s too busy gaping at Pidge for having the audacity to call him out about his  _ private _ sex life with  _ his boyfriend _ . “Were you listening to us? Pidge, what the fuck?” 

 

“It’s my  _ apartment _ !” 

 

“It  _ was _ your apartment! You died in it! I  _ live _ here now, remember? I pay rent, you freeload and apparently listen to Shiro and I have sex.” A part of Pidge understands that listening to their friends have sex is a bad thing, but that part is small and easily ignored. A much larger part of Pidge’s personality likes seeing the way Keith’s face and ears turn bright red in embarrassment. “Stop  _ smiling _ like that!” 

  
Pidge absolutely does not wipe their shit-eating grin off of their face, merely tilting their head and smiling wider. “If you want me to stop listening in on you and Shiro while you bump uglies,” they pause here to snicker while Keith groans about ‘ghosts from the goddamn nineties’ before continuing, “you should ask him about what he wants for his birthday.” 

 

It is a hard challenge because Keith is clearly determined to fail spectacularly, but Pidge has some faith that he will come to his senses. 

* * *

Keith does not come to his senses.

 

He spends five out of the eight remaining days he has before Shiro’s birthday  _ with _ the man in question and has ample opportunity to ask him about a birthday present and still.. doesn’t. It’s not like he’s hell bent on proving to Pidge that he can do this all by himself, though that would be the sweet cherry on top of his lactose-free sunday, he just doesn’t know how to tell his boyfriend of two months that he’s waited until the last minute to buy him a birthday present. He feels bad about it, even if he has no reason to. 

 

So he takes Shiro to all of the places that he’s even vaguely mentioned wanting to go to. They share a Salty Pimp from the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop in the Stonewall National Park across the way and take aesthetic Polaroids of each other while exploring the entirety of the West Village. It’s a good day, Keith thinks, but he does not write it off as something Shiro would have definitely wanted to do for his birthday. It’s good – but not good enough. 

 

So he tries again on day two. They go to see  _ Black Panther  _ for the third time that month and run around the Disney Store together. Shiro, precious boy that he is, gets his head stuck in an Iron Man mask that is  _ much _ too small for his grown man face and Keith has way too much fun with the Black Panther gauntlets. They ask a couple of tourist to take a photo of them while they kissed on the escalators painted like the lantern scene from  _ Tangled _ . It’s a much better day and Keith cannot stop kissing Shiro senseless until they separate at their doors. Better is not good enough still. 

 

Keith takes Shiro to ‘Museum Mile’ for days three and four. It is a much quieter day than the two previous and Keith kind of likes the way museum lighting makes Shiro a much softer man. He’s demure amongst Greek statues in the Met though Keith absolutely believes that he belongs amongst their ranks. Their instagram posts those day are a series of Shiro flexing and posing to match the statues. Keith bookmarks them all to print them later. 

 

They spend day five inside, tucked in on each other while an old 90s anime plays on Shiro’s smart TV and cheap Thai food cools on the low coffee table in front of them. They kiss as a grainy magical girl transformation takes over the screen and Keith is, for the first time, struck by the utter domesticity of the day. Keith stays the night at Shiro’s apartment and they make breakfast the next morning. He wants to think that Shiro has a good time, because he certainly does, but he’s not entirely sure it’s  _ enough _ .

 

Shiro deserves the best birthday possible and an even better present but Keith has absolutely no idea what to get him. 

 

Until he remembers the little heart shaped bottle.

It’s half-filled with lavender, rose petals, lemon peels, and Himalayan pink salt. Keith didn’t know what to put in it for a while, but he knows precisely what to do with it  _ now _ that he’s sat and thought. And to think that he didn’t need to ask Shiro what he wanted at all. 

* * *

It is two minutes before midnight on February 27th when Keith finally sealed the little bottle in blood red wax and tied it with a golden ribbon. The spell inside of it is finished and charged quite firmly with his intent, but as a present..it doesn’t exactly feel the most finished. Something can certainly be added.

 

There’s a  _ thump _ off to his left and a studded tube of lipstick rolls unevenly over the hardwood floors until it bumps against Keith’s socked right foot. He doesn’t have to look at the color label on the bottom to know exactly what shade of red it is, but he does roll a D battery out of his pocket in thanks for Pidge’s help. “You’ve got one minute~”

 

“I know,” Keith says as he opens the lipstick tube and carefully applies it to his lips. He lifts the bottle up in both hands before pressing a loving kiss to the glass.  _ Happy birthday, Shiro _ , he thinks as warm, ruby colored magic enveloped the bottle and sealed the spell inside of it. He knows Shiro is awake and with the last few seconds left before his birthday, Keith skitters out of his salt circle and out of his front door. Within a breath, he’s knocking on Shiro’s front door and rocking back and forth on his heels as he waits. 

 

The clocks all strike midnight just as Shiro opens the door. 

 

It’s a moment that a part of Keith wants to describe in some poetic manner. He wants to think about the way Shiro’s storm gray eyes manage to look pretty in their shitty hallway lighting, the way his muscles bulge and relax as he shifts, just his overall  _ beauty _ but all that Keith can manage to think is “I love him.” He’s never thought about that before, the possibility of loving Shiro, but he’s happy to know that he does. 

 

Of course, he doesn’t say  _ any _ of that. Keith just holds out the bottle with a small smile and a tilt of his head. “Happy birthday, Shiro.” 

 

“I don’t think anyone’s been  _ this _ determined to say ‘happy birthday’ to me first since I was in college,” Shiro teases as he takes the small bottle carefully. He turns it this way and that, inspecting it thoughtfully. He’s not sure what it is, though, and he lifts his head in question. “You..made me a spell?” 

  
Keith nods, tugging lightly on the onyx bracelet decorating his thin wrist. When Shiro asks “what kind?” Keith struggles to come up with an appropriate answer. A good amount of the things in the jar mean “love” of some sort, but there are things for peace and protection there as well. It’s nothing specific, really. Just a magical manifestation of everything Shiro makes Keith  _ feel _ . “It’s a spell for you to have a happy future. Ideally with me, but–” Keith’s cut off by Shiro’s lips meeting his own and he’s never in his life been more happy to have been shut up in his life. 

“Thank you,” Shiro whispers against Keith’s lips, pulling him in closer by his waist and nuzzling their noses together affectionately. He felt warm and pleasant, and while it might have been a side effect of the spell held in his hand, he thinks that it’s Keith. It’s everything to do with Keith. “So much.” 

  
Pidge watches them with something akin to pride in their green eyes, tilting their head curiously as they rolled the D battery in their palm. They’re glad they made Shiro say hi to Keith back in November. It was the best idea they’ve  _ ever _ had. 

**Author's Note:**

> if you like my work please consider buying me a [coffee!](https://ko-fi.com/A681E8Y)


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